My goldfish bowl (london) is getting colder!

The new St. Pancreas train station opened few weeks ago and they had a performance/circus act/parade on Friday night called Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA). We started from a street off the main road near the station and followed this parade of lanterns and bands to a “secret spot” where there were 3-4 stages set up with tv screens, “wheel of death”, tight ropes with people abseiling in, acrobats, orchestra, breakdancing, rappers, singers, beatboxer, bollywood dancers…it was awesome!

Of course we couldn’t feel our feet or fingers afterwards but it was so worth it.

Checked out Somerset House (lots of bling bling), the ice rink there, hayward gallery, more London Jazz Week.

Today went to Hampton Court Palace where I got really excited in anticipation about getting lost in the garden maze! I didn’t get lost, but I tried my best and was very disappointed when I found the centre. Good fun though. The ticket guy suggested that I should walk through with my eyes closed next time. And there were a lot of excited children racing through with their disgruntled parents leading the rear.

Hampton Court Palace is best known for Richard VIII & his many wives. I’ve heard about him (not educated in Britain, thank you very much!) but still feels like a harsh way to break up with someone. He should have just converted to Islam that permits 4 wives at a time. Very plush interiors, but very spooky when it gets dark (sun starts setting at 330pm now).

Anyway on more important matters… Bel & Cheryl’s bro Nat supported a peaceful political demonstration in Kuala Lumpur city 2 weeks ago that resulted in them being tear gassed several times. It’s illegal to have mass gatherings or criticising the Malaysian government. Nat walked to support the rights of the economically disprivelledged Indians in Malaysia and how they are being ignored by the government. Financial & economic assistance from the government in Malaysia is racially legislated when it should be based on actual needs rather than racial terms.

Participation estimated to be up to 30,000 people. Nasty way that the government dealt with it : tear gas & riot soldiers.

Pics of the incident & Nat’s personal experience are at his webpage:

http://jelas.info/

Al Jazeera footage (1 1/2 mins long)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Q6558tY58E&feature=related

Kinda shocking for anyone who’s visited/lived in KL because it’s always been peaceful. Malaysian controlled media is doing a fine blanket job on the issue..

Life still goes on in KL I imagine. I was pretty surprised that John Howard’s finally going… Gordon Brown is doing ok so far. And England lost against Croatia?

Hope your part of the world or your gold fish bowl.. is good

Shi

Hiya..

It was a really interesting Saturday morning, went to Tsukiji and Ginza on Saturday. Tsukiji was such a cool experience because I have never seen so many animals from all over the world. I saw the reddest garoupa in a tank (red is an auspicious colour), with live squid next to it, pufferfish (fugu I think) piled up, frozen tuna as bigger than a german shepard piled up, live lobsters scuttling in sawdust trays, crabs, live abalone, sea urchins, rainbow prawns,octopus (dead, they are too intelligent to deal with alive) gigantic clams still squirting water and their squishy bodies breathing, barrels full of squirming needle eels, long eels, more fish…

The first thing that I noticed before I walked in was that this is the first fish market that smells like the ocean and not fish. A lot of the sea creatures there are not indigenous to Japan but some are from tropical oceans in Asia. Also the scale of it was mind-blowing because maybe 2 days ago, the fishes could have been still swimming in Asia but this morning they were in Tokyo (not a good way to see the world). So behind this concrete market with its pockmarked concrete floors　and puddles everywhere is a network of fishermen, middlemen, dealers, shipping, air shipping, and of course people with the means to keep a fish alive for 2 days in a plane.

Pretty mind-blowing, especially when you see the size and numbers of uber-high quality fish in the market, but once you see the amount of tuna being eaten everyday in the Tokyo restaurants, sushi joints, kaiten sushi etc, it makes sense. But it also made me wonder how much of Malaysia and Indonesia’s reefs are being harvested, and how can the reefs be sustained by such large scale consumption?

So over my breakfast of tuna and rice, I pondered some issues, not including the over-consumption of apex predators such as the tuna and the impact of its loss on the ocean’s ecology.

The stores were still closed so I walked to the Imperial Palace. It was a foreign invasion of another kind, the invasion of the Japanese palace by Koreans, Chinese and their own Japanese countrymen! They came in their hordes, led by generals in cream A-line miniskirts and blouses, waving flags and shooting with digital and disposable cameras. Swarming on fences, scenic vistas and marching through pedestrian crossings before bundling back into their vehicles of war – the coach buses.

The Malaysian army in comparison was small, consisting of a single individual on foot.

I also found a totally amazing building, the Tokyo International Design Forum (its an architectural thing) and made my way to the Sony shop where I abused Aibo and pulled his poly-synthetic tail. Gotta say, I’ve never seen so many 20-something white guys go straight to the Playstation level and start discussing the merits of a video game in great detail. Also the only level where little kids can leave dad for the day. I actually didn’t like Ginza much because they all sold these pink fairy dresses and pointy high-heels and I can’t afford to buy any of the clothes anyway. I listened to some music at the Apple store and another cd shop and I made myself a key chain at the Nissan showroom that now hangs on the keyhole of my front door.

The population of Ginza during the day was roughly 95% middle-aged women, 3% Japanese husbands (they are the ones in charge of carrying the kids) and 2% foreign tourists.

Got home all tired but strangely satiated. Dunno where to go next weekend, but I still haven’t seen the Yokohama International Terminal(its an archi thing), Kamakura and Chiba. Less than 2 months to go…

Touristy Shi.

Hiya…

More pics from me – really tired at the moment, I’ve been shinkansen-ing Tokyo-Kyoto this whole weekend, I made 4 trips (woo-hoo!) Shinkansen travel is definitely for me, it makes scenic (but boring) landscape into MTV-esque 30second clips that match my attention span.. I’m still having problems with the trains (this time, the crush went my direction and I was mooshed against the glass) and today on the train to work I could feel the guy next to me’s tupperware in his bag indent itself into my hip…My japanese is also not getting better (in fact it has declined, decayed and is dead on the gutter) and I need classes..like..NOW.

Kyoto was really good. It took a while to get used to but I went all touristy and visited a palace, shrine, castle and zen garden (in that order). I paid the most amount of money for one meal in Kyoto, and it was for a bowl of tofu. But when you see where the restaurant was…you’d understand. And the tofu was good…really! The zen garden was amazing, (Ryoanji)…you can really just relax being there, and I felt heaps better on the way home. Gravel and stones have taken on a whole new meaning….

Well it’s been raining all day here and I’m glad I’m not going home yet. It looks cold out there.

Hope all is well,

Tired Shi all nippon-ised.